I think this has been a really good year for blackberries. I am referring to the ordinary grows everywhere in the NW Himalaya Blackberry. I've* been gorging on them all week. I think the rainy spring and early summer, followed by hot weather in July made unusually sweet plump berries.

Wear long sleeves and watch out for the thorns, they are brutal. :P

As long as is it doesn't get all cloudy and damp, they should last a while in Puget Sound, but in many areas they are at their prime right now.

Enjoy!

Ha

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I remember seeing blackberries by the millions when leaving Seattle via Amtrak going to Vancouver, BC. I also remember picking sackfuls of blueberries and then eating them for a week. Consider yourself lucky on having the best fruit around.

Here in Kansas (in the heart of Volga German country) our "blackberries" swartzberren look like your very small blueberries. They grow on a plant that is a member of the nightshade family and was brought to this country by Russian immigrants. We have them in kuchen (coffee cake) and maldosche (a kind of dough pocket that is like a boiled noodle dough stuffed with berries and then you pour farm cream and fried bread crumbs over it all) Great for the ol' LDL.

Now I'm hungry for some of those Raniers!

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time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

We have them in kuchen (coffee cake) and maldosche (a kind of dough pocket that is like a boiled noodle dough stuffed with berries and then you pour farm cream and fried bread crumbs over it all) Great for the ol' LDL.

Man, I felt the flow in my arteries slow down just reading that description. Sounds delicious!

__________________There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. - Andrew Jackson

Himalayan blackberries (the toughest weeds in the world) in the PNW figure prominently in my happy childhood and also-happy adulthood (when I get there). This makes me homesick.

We would throw a 2x4 down on the big berry patches and stand on it to be able to get further into the briar patch and to bring the highest ones, the ones the bears couldn't reach, down within our reach.

The best ones do seem to grow along railraod tracks (but Burlington sprays for them so be careful).

Glad some things don't change.

Enjoy,

El Gitano

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Ha......* Just returned from visiting friends in northern Wisconsin where we did some blackberry picking in the Chippewa National Forest.* Lots of fun.* I was glad to have my friend's 100+ pound golden lab with us as bears frequent the berry patches there. The barking dog at least lets them know we're around so we don't stumble upon one and surprise it.

Had fresh blackberries in pancakes in the morning and on ice cream in the evening.......yuuuuum........good stuff.

Inbetween all that, we kayaked the Pestigo River.

Berry picking and kayaking, another couple of things I seldom had time to do prior to ER six weeks ago.* ER rules!

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"I wasn't born blue blood. I was born blue-collar." John Wort Hannam

I'm an Oregonian, too. I went blackberrying yesterday with my husband and daughter. There's a blackberry hedge behind my daughter's rural school. It took thirty minutes to fill up three pots full of luscious berries, and to get good and scratched to boot. I canned 8 jars of jam and made a pie. We have plenty of berries left over for smoothies and ice cream topping. Blackberries are my favorite fruit.

I just laugh when I'm in the grocery stores in my town and I see blackberries for $3.99 a half pint. Sheesh.

When I was young in SW Washington some Blackberry patches grew as tall and as big as a house - we used to carry boards to walk on to 'get up high'. Of course - we tryed to sell the extra berries door to door in the neighborhood - after our parents took their cut.

I can remember visiting my Grand Mother in Pennsylvania. We picked a few pots of blackberries and my Grand Mother made 2 pies which we enjoyed that night. Almost 50 years ago. Yikes!
I can still remember how good those pies were.

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Work is something you do to get enough $ so you don't have to....Me.

I just laugh when I'm in the grocery stores in my town and I see blackberries for $3.99 a half pint. Sheesh.

Around here, if we see them at all, it'd be a bargain.

I'll trade you lychee-- ounce for ounce!

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I don't spend much time here anymore, so please send me a PM. Thanks.

DH was clearing blackberries last week along a property line. The owner's dogs started nibbiling on the berries. Evidently the dogs are happy to endure the bramble scratches to consume sweet berries - and were delighted that a human was willing to clear the way.

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